Saturday, October 28, 2006

Seventh Sister "unplanned birth"

Melbourne City Council jetset to adopt another sister city as overseas travel costs soar

Melbourne City Council is gearing up to adopt a Seventh Sister city. The City Council already has six sister cities on its books which is one more then was originally approved. The City Council had previously placed a limit on the number of Sister cities at five but this was extended in 2000/2001 to include the Italian city of Milan. Now the City Council administration is planning on adopting a new sister city this time based in Delhi, India.

We already have a smorgasbord of international cuisines including Japanese Osaka sushi; Chinese Tianjin stir fried, Greek Thessaloniki salad, American Boston buns, Russian St Petersburg borsh and Italian Milan pizza on the menu. Now they want authentic Indian Delhi curry. All are in the northern hemisphere not one in the south. Create a virtual foster family and forget expanding the sister city program.With every sister city the extent of opportunity for our city council to travel abroad increases as does the Council's overseas travel costs.With every new Sister City our existing sister city relationships begin to suffer. We should not adopt another. Enough is enough. Melbourne must say no to another sister city. Already the existing siblings are suffering from a lack of attention with China being the latest exotic must visit destination.

Oblivious of the costs John So is prepared to spend up big on what ever comes his way. If the City of Melbourne is allowed to increase the number of sister cities then we can expect that India will be the next exotic destination for our City Councillors and staff to spend corporate, ratepayer funded, holidays abroad.

Under John So's leadership our City Council has become the biggest spending Council in the history of Melbourne and John So shows no sign of fiscal restraint. John So is willing to close his eyes and block his ears to a Greater Melbourne at home but is happy to expand Melbourne abroad. John So should put the idea of another sister city to a referendum of ratepayers along with the full costs and implications of having a new sibling and see if ratepayers support his global expansion plans.